This thread will track construction projects that do not have individual threads of their own. There are lots of smaller projects that are happening around the city, with a mix of redevelopment and new developments. This thread will also have articles that cover development-related topics. Enjoy!

The law on the compulsory sale of old buildings is at the center of another row as some residents of Grand Court and Kension Mansion on Caine Road are not willing to move out even though a developer has acquired the 80 percent rights threshold.

The law, which reduced the threshold on buildings aged 50 and over from 90 to 80 percent, became effective on April 1.

Since then, there have been several cases in which owners forced out have complained about unfair compensation.

One of the new standouts is Krishna Singh, 79, who purchased an eighth-floor flat in Kension Mansion and has lived there for about 50 years.

"Home is where my heart is. I don't want to go away from my home and my community," wept Singh, saying she may be unable to buy another flat in the area even if she is compensated.

Her daughter, Mala Barber, blamed lack of transparency on purchases, saying no one has revealed the actual percentage of property rights acquired despite the stringing up of banners congratulating compensated owners.

"It is not about how much they pay us. We want to live here and we won't leave even if they pay us HK$10 million," Barber said. "They should show some responsibility to society."

Barber estimated the flat is worth about HK$6.5 million at today's prices.

Singh said she received by post notices in Chinese relating to the compulsory sale but that she did not know how to respond as she cannot read Chinese.

The owner of a fourth-floor flat at the 51-year-old Grand Court, surnamed Chan, said he has lived there for over 26 years.

Property agents frequently disturbed his family with phone calls and knocks on the door.

"Since the policy was implemented, our family has been frequently disturbed, with the highest number of visits being three times each week late at night or at dinner time," Chan said.

Wong Ho-yin, a member of Minority Owners' Alliance Against Compulsory Sales, said a developer has acquired 80 percent of the ownership rights of Kension Mansion, which turns 50 next year. However, it has not yet got 80 percent of Grand Court.

Four-legged strollers to get park at North Point promenade
15 March 2010
SCMP

Pet owners can look forward to walking their four-legged friends in a new dog park on the North Point promenade.

The park, next to the North Point pier near Kam Hong Street on the former grounds of North Point Estate, is being renovated and is due to open shortly, the government said.

Formerly a tree-lined path with benches and exercise facilities, it is being widened into a dog park with stone walls and sand pools. Morning strollers will still be welcome but will have to share the park with the animals. The new amenity comes after the pet-friendly park along the Wan Chai promenade closed in late January to make way for construction of the Central-Wan Chai Bypass.

Eastern District councillor Desmond Lee Yu-tai said although the government had told the council that the park was temporary, he believed it would be kept.

"When you have given people something, it will be hard to take it back," he said.

A spokeswoman of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said it would offer an alternative for pet owners living in Wan Chai and Eastern districts.

She was not worried that local residents would oppose the opening.

"Look at [the park at] Wan Chai promenade. It was clean, and even non-pet owners loved going there," she said. "The park helped build up a reputation of Hong Kong pet owners having self-discipline."

Tsoi Hiu-wing, who has been living in North Point for over two decades, said it was good to have a pet park, since many of her neighbours were dog owners. "North Point and the Eastern District in general lack such facilities. Many people just walk their dogs in the streets. It is good to have a place where they can gather," she said.

But Ching On-yi, who passes by the North Point promenade every morning when she walks to work, said the park might be a hassle for local residents.

"I have been to other dog parks; they do not smell good and sometimes you see liquid on the ground," she said.

She said she might avoid the park if there were too many dogs.

Covering 570 square metres, the North Point pet corner will be only a fraction of the size of the one that was in Wan Chai. Secretary for Development Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said earlier that the Wan Chai park might be reinstated after completion of the Central-Wan Chai Bypass.

Meanwhile, the society said it would try to persuade the government to convert larger areas, such as Victoria Park, into pet-friendly parks.

A government spokeswoman said another pet garden would be built in the Tai Hang Drive Sitting-out Area in Wan Chai.

Pets are allowed in about a dozen parks across the city, including Victoria Peak Garden in Western, Yau Tsim Mong Pet Garden in Ferry Street, Kowloon Tsai Park in Kowloon City and the Sheung Wan promenade in Central and Western District.

The city's only school for the visually impaired has been given two more months to find another site for its services, with the Town Planning Board again delaying a decision on the school's application to turn its waterfront Pok Fu Lam campus into top-end residential blocks.

The Ebenezer School and Home for the Visually Impaired has a redevelopment agreement with developer Hang Lung Properties to turn the site into luxury flats and has repeatedly applied to the board to change the zoning of the land from "government, institution or community" to low-density residential.

The school bought the site a century ago and wants education authorities, which subsidise the school, to help find a new site.

The school first applied for rezoning last year but the board's metro planning committee decided in June that year to defer a decision on the application because committee members were concerned the school would not be able to continue its services without a relocation site.

The committee deferred its decision again yesterday, saying it would agree to the applicant's request to be given two more months to look for another site.

"We have to ensure that the provision of social services [for the visually impaired] will not be affected. We know that the issue has dragged on for more than a year, it's the last time that we will make a deferral on reaching a decision," it said.

The Pok Fu Lam school asked the Development Opportunities Office for help with the relocation last year, preferably to a new site in Sha Tin, Tai Po or Kowloon and near an MTR station.

According to the school's submission to the office, the school hoped the campus would have a gross floor area of 24,000 square metres, or about twice its present size.

But the office could not find a suitable site for the school and the Education Bureau said in March that it would not assist because the relocation was initiated by the school sponsoring body.

"The bureau will not provide any school site for relocation and will not bear any of the building or relocation costs. The school sponsoring body should bear the full responsibility of the proposed relocation," it said.

Established in 1897 by German missionary Martha Postler, the school admitted 82 pupils in the 2009-10 academic year. According to the two development plans submitted by the school to the board, it plans to build either six six-storey residential buildings or three 14-storey blocks of flats.

Law Kai-hong, principal of Haven of Hope Sunnyside School, said the Ebenezer case was unprecedented in the special school sector. "Over 90 per cent of special schools were given land by the Education Bureau for a nominal fee. So it's customary for special schools to get help from the bureau about retro-fittings if they are more than 30 years old. But the Ebenezer school owns the land. So there's no precedent for the Education Bureau to fall back on."

Requests to the school for comment were not returned yesterday and the Education Bureau said it would not comment on the case.

Stanley set to lose landmark blue house
6 July 2010
South China Morning Post

The waterfront at Stanley Main Street will lose its landmark "blue house" in two years' time, when the site is redeveloped into a 10-storey hotel.

The building is one of the most memorable spots in the street and has been occupied for 11 years by The Boathouse restaurant.

In March, the site's owners, the Dolphin Bay Trading Company, were given the go-ahead to turn it into a hotel-style serviced apartment complex with six guestrooms.

With two more years to continue business, The Boathouse's operators, Igor's Group, are renovating the building's third floor to make more open space for alfresco dining. "We want customers to enjoy themselves in our last years here. People met here, got married here, and brought their kids to here - lots of fond memories," restaurant manager Ashok Sharma said.

Igor's Group said it had yet to work out with the landlord whether the restaurant would be part of the redevelopment but Sharma said it would be difficult to find another place in Stanley.

According to the papers submitted to the Town Planning Board by Dolphin Bay Trading Company, the proposed hotel would house restaurants on the first three floors and be a continuation of the Stanley Main Street culture.

"This site {hellip} is ripe for renewal as a private-initiated urban redevelopment scheme. Such redevelopment will act as a catalyst and stimulate further renewal in other degraded areas of Stanley," the company said. In approving the application, the board advised the landlord to ensure the design of the hotel complemented the local street character.

The blue house is not graded as a historic building.

Hazel Yuen Wai-yan, a flight attendant who patronises the restaurant about twice every year, said she was not aware of the redevelopment plan.

"This is a comfortable place where you can enjoy seafood and the sea breeze," she said. "It's sad to hear it'll be torn down soon."

Transport officials will abandon the escalator plan for historic Ladder Street in Central.

In a letter to the Central and Western District Council this week, the Transport and Housing Bureau said it had consulted the Antiquities and Monuments Office and completed a preliminary assessment.

"If an escalator is built, we need to remove the steps which form half the width of Ladder Street, and conduct underground works, which would affect conservation of the historic structure badly. Therefore, the Transport Department and the Highways Department will look for a route near Ladder Street as a revised route," the bureau said.

The bureau has, after councillors' objections and media reports, dropped its original proposal, which involved building escalators at five sections of Ladder Street, which connects Caine Road, Bridges Street, Upper Lascar Row, Hollywood Road and Queen's Road Central. It suggested this as a mitigation measure to reduce traffic impact from possible relaxation of building restrictions after 2014, when the MTR's West Island Line opens.

In the original assessment, the bureau said escalators would help the elderly population, save travel time and benefit tourism. . It did not mention the heritage impact.

Ladder Street was built in the 1840s with steps and landings made out of granite slabs and concrete paving. There are still some old sections of retaining walls and boundary walls visible, the antiquities office says.

Macquarie Fund has agreed to sell Vicwood Plaza - the office and mall complex sitting on top of the Sheung Wan MTR station - for more than HK$4.1 billion.

The deal, which comes to HK$10,353 per square foot, was struck six months after talks started with the buyer, whose identity is not known, on the 396,721-square-foot building, a source told Sing Tao Daily, sister publication of The Standard.

MGPA, a private equity real estate fund backed by Macquarie Fund, purchased the building from Morgan Stanley in March 2006 for HK$2.6 billion. The transaction will bring it a gain of HK$1.5 billion.

Nearly the entire 23-year-old building is leased, with office space rented at HK$35 psf a month on average. The monthly rental of the building is more than HK$11 million and the yield is expected to be around 3.3 percent.

Vicwood Plaza is a 34-story building with four levels of retail space and a 30-floor office tower.

It was completed in 1987 and originally owned by Vicwood Group.

Morgan Stanley bought the building from Vicwood Group for HK$840 million in June 2003.

The last major transaction in the district before this was in September, when Eric Chu Nap-kee, a Chinese Vietnamese, bought the Nexxus Building for HK$3.6 billion, or HK$13,846 psf.

Morgan Stanley and some partners purchased the Nexxus Building from Hang Seng Bank (0011) for HK$2.26 billion in May 2006 and spent HK$200 million on renovation.

Bullish developers keep hiking prices with new launches
22 July 2010
The Standard

The mood among developers is distinctly bullish, with more primary homes being put on the market.

Launching its third price list in two days, Emperor International (0163) plans to sell the latest batch of 12 units at The Java for an average of HK$13,779 per square foot.

This is 12 percent higher than the average HK$12,254 psf fetched by the second batch of 12 units and 21 percent higher than the first 30 homes, which went for HK$11,388 psf.

Sun Hung Kai Properties (0016) also released two price lists yesterday. Fifty homes in Tower 8 at Larvotto will go for an average of HK$13,638 psf. That is a rise of nearly 3 percent from the average HK$13,278 psf for the 22 homes at Tower 9 of the Ap Lei Chau project.

Not to miss out on the property boom, Pofield Holdings will put six unsold units at Grand Garden in Shau Kei Wan on the market on Saturday.

The average price is HK$8,850 psf, up around 30 percent from the relaunch price last year. The project was first launched in 2008. Four duplexes at the same property will target up to HK$19 million, or HK$14,000 psf.

More than 10,000 primary homes will likely be available in the second half, boosting registered deals by 50 percent and sales by 42 percent to HK$75.5 billion, Ricacorp said.

Phase 2 of Cheung Kong's Festival City and the Oceanaire development in Ma On Shan will each supply over 1,100 homes.

A government land auction was spooked yesterday - for the first time in 16 years a site had to be withdrawn. The urban plot in Chai Wan faces six cemeteries and not a single developer was interested.

But a site in Fan Ling attracted 43 bids and was sold to Sun Hung Kai Properties (0016) for a better- than-expected HK$459 million.

Its accommodation value of more than HK$3,000 per square foot is a record for North District.

Eight surveyors had expected the 19,418-square-foot plot in Lin Shing Road, Cha Wan, to fetch HK$620 million to HK$930 million. But developers ignored it despite an opening bid of HK$530 million.

Lands Department deputy director and auctioneer Graham Ross said the withdrawal was "an unusual and a rare occurrence." It last happened in 1994 when a Yuen Long industrial site was withdrawn.

Developers appeared concerned about the cost to maintain and stabilize a large slope nearby. It was natural for the site to be withdrawn because of development risks and undefined maintenance costs, said Stewart Leung Chi-kin, New World Development (0017) executive director and vice chairman of the Real Estate Developers Association.

"When I sell the units, it's unfair for buyers to bear all risks." Leung said. "If I'm to bear the risks, it's not worthwhile to make such a big investment."

Ringo Lam Chun-chiu, valuations director at AG Wilkinson & Associates, said the slope could drive construction costs up by 20 percent. He said it would be difficult to build units that will not have cemetery views.

Shares of top developers closed higher despite the auction hiccup.

SHKP needed just 25 minutes to secure the 27,556-sq-ft plot in Luen Wo Hui, Fan Ling, beating five other firms. Knight Frank expects homes on the site to sell for as much as HK$6,000 psf. This compares with HK$2,659 to HK$3,328 psf at eight nearby developments. Centaline Property expects prospective sellers in the neighborhood to raise asking prices by 5 to 10 percent.

Sun Hung Kai Properties (0016) beat six other developers to win the former North Point Estate site for a lower-than-estimated HK$6.91 billion yesterday, as prospects dim for the local property sector.

Several restrictions placed on the plot also discouraged bidding for the tender.

The 251,876 square foot Java Road waterfront plot is the biggest tendered in the past 15 years and had been tipped to fetch HK$7.4 billion to HK$9 billion. The maximum gross floor area of 900,677 square feet translates to a price of HK$7,672 per square foot.

The price offered is about 7.5 percent lower than the HK$8,300 psf that Cheung Kong Holdings (0001) paid for a site on nearby Oil Street last year.

"Developers have become cautious when filling up their land banks as global economic uncertainties prevail," Centaline Surveyors director James Cheung King-tat said. "Restrictions on height, number of units and noise levels also tempered the plot's appeal."

As much as 64 percent of the gfa, or 577,807 sq ft, will house 700 residential units. And 18 percent, or 162,122 sq ft, will be taken up by mall and office space. The rest will be used for public facilities including an elderly day care center and a traffic interchange.

SHKP executive director Victor Lui Ting said the total investment cost will be HK$15 billion. "The site faces the sea and has a convenient traffic location. The scale of development is not too big nor too small. We are happy to have won the tender," Lui said.

Cheung at Centaline expects the completed flats to be priced at about HK$15,000 psf - higher than secondary flats nearby.

But he said the lower-than-expected premium paid for the site by SHKP would add pressure to the North Point secondary market.